05.06.06
Reading the Bible (4)
[IV] What should I do as I read the Bible(2)
Read: Acts 17:1-15
In 1850, the first Europeans settled on a remote hillside in Queensland, Australia, and formed a community called ‘Mount Morgan’. These settlers scraped a meagre living from the land through farming. But in 1874 a certain William McKinlay discovered gold, and since then 247 tonnes of gold, 40 tonnes of silver and 247 tonnes of copper have been mined out of Mount Morgan. For 24 years, the settlers were scraping away a living when, if they had dug a bit, they would have found gold and never had to plant another potato. The 1850 settlers on Mount Morgan literally didn’t know the riches they were sitting on.
This true story illustrates a very important point for we Christians. We have our Bibles on our shelves, perhaps even on our bedside cabinets – but you know if we would only dig we would find riches even more valuable than gold because we would find Jesus. Don’t you know that whenever you hold your Bible in your hand, you are holding something more valuable than any precious stone? But to mine its riches you have to dig.
Last time we answered the question ‘What should I do as I read the Bible?’ We saw, according to Answer 90 of the Shorter Catechism, that as we read it, we must receive it with faith, believing it to be God’s Word, and love, believing it to be the best possible way to follow. I taught you last week what kind of spade you need in order to dig the Scriptures to find the gold – a spade of faith and love. But this week, I want to teach you how to dig in order that you may become rich with Christ through the Scriptures.
[A] Studying the Scriptures – Why?
I just want to briefly address this subject, since we have already gone into it in fair detail. But I want to answer one particular question – and that is, if we are praying for the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word for us, what is the point of studying it? Surely if the Holy Spirit is present with us when we are reading, He will make us know the meaning of the text without us having to dig, or in other words, will he not do the digging for us?
I’ll give you an example of this mindset in action – someone rushes into the Bible in the morning and prays that the Spirit would open up the meaning of the text for them. They don’t have much time, their lives are hurried, and so they don’t bother themselves with trying to understand, they just rely on the Spirit to open up the meaning for them.
Now it is undoubtedly true, as William Cunningham has said, “in order to men’s acquiring a real knowledge of God’s will from his word, the influence of the Holy Spirit is necessary”. None of us deny that, but the real question here is not whether the Holy Spirit illuminates the word for us, but how will he illuminate it – how will He get the message of the text through to us? I contend that the Biblical pattern, based on texts like Acts 17:11 – ‘they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily’ and John 5:39 - ‘search the Scriptures’ – is that the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds through our study. In other words, to quote William Cunningham again, “No man will ever have a clear and distinct apprehension of the meaning of any portion of Scripture unless he has really brought the powers and faculties of his own mind to bear upon it.”
Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 that it is through the renewing of our minds that we will be transformed – and it is as our minds are engaged in the study of the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit will make the meaning of the text clear. I’ll tie up this point by quoting a rather large portion from William Cunningham again, “It has been often said, and said truly, in regard to the work of sanctification, that men should labour as if they could do all, and pray as if they could do nothing. So it is here; men must use the ordinary appropriate means of acquiring an accurate critical knowledge of the meaning and import of the statements of Scripture, as if this were abundantly sufficient for knowing fully the revealed will of God; and they must seek the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit, as if nothing else were of any use or advantage whatever.”
In other words, study as if gaining the meaning of the text depended upon you alone, pray as if gaining the meaning of the text depended upon the Holy Spirit alone.
[B] Studying the Scriptures – How?
But now, getting to the nitty gritty of the topic at hand, we ask the question about the methods we should employ in studying the Scriptures.
(1) When Should I Study? – the Scriptures themselves have much to say on this topic. Let’s look at a couple of passages:
(a) Proverbs 8:34 – “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway’ – now if you understand ‘listen to me’, ‘watching at my doors’ and ‘waiting at my doorway’ as seeking the Lord through the Scriptures, then the answer of when we should do it becomes plain – ‘daily’.
(b) Acts 17:11 – ‘they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true’ – here we meet the Bereans, who truly valued the message Paul was preaching and examined it carefully to see if what Paul said was true – again, we ask them the question of when we should study the Scriptures, and the answer comes back – ‘every day’.
It would seem clear, that the Scriptures themselves suggest and encourage us to study them daily. We are to treat them as manna from heaven, carrying God’s message and strength for today to us. So set aside a time every day, be it morning, which I believe is preferable, or evening, to read your Bible. It may mean going into the office half hour earlier, it may mean reading while the kids are down for a mid-morning sleep – chances are that you’ll never find a time to do it, you’ll have to make it.
But there is something else that needs to be said here – and it is that the Lord’s day is a special day set aside for worshipping the Lord and studying His Word. That is how we keep it holy – not merely by ‘not doing certain things’, like working, but also by doing certain things, like worshipping and studying. The rest we have on the Lord’s day gives us the perfect opportunity to spend more time than we would normally do studying and understanding God’s Word.
Think of it like this. Last week as the plane was descending from a great height, my ears were wanting to pop as the pressure differentials changed. Now the swallowing action is designed to relieve the pressure in your inner ears, so every few seconds I consciously swallowed. But if you pinch your nose with your fingers, close your mouth, tilt your head to one side and blow hard, it is a far better way (if not just a bit dangerous) of equalising the pressure and getting your ears to pop. Now daily Bible study is like the swallowing action which you do every couple of seconds to gradually depressurise your ears. But the Bible Study you do on the Lord’s day is like the blowing action, which you may only do once or twice during your descent but is even more effective.
(2) Where Should I Study? – I don’t mean by where, the location in your house, but where in the Bible. Now I would suggest you take your Bible study, unless you are using a devotional aid like Our Daily Bread, one book at a time. The advantage of doing it that way is that you get a feel for the whole story of the Book and for its major themes, rather than just dipping into it and not really understanding its context. Someone has said, ‘A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text’ – the context in which something is written is vital to understanding what the text really means. So I would suggest that you go through the Scriptures one book at a time.
Now when I say this I don’t mean that you should start in Genesis and finish in Revelation. Having one book you are reading daily like John or Acts, and then having one book you are studying on the Lord’s day, like Romans or the Psalms, is a good way of doing it. Alternate between Old Testament and New Testament so as to keep Christ central to your studies.
Also, do not just choose one verse to study. Although one verse may contain a lot of information, you are better taking a longer passage. Most modern translations of the Bible are divided into sections – take then a section at a time. If you feel that you need to spend your time on one verse, that’s all well and good. But don’t make a practice of it or you will get bogged down in Job or Jeremiah. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that he read through the whole book of Romans every Sunday in his own quiet time – why don’t you try reading through a whole book in one go.
Keep a study diary, and in it write down the lessons you have learned from the text. I must say that I don’t really mark my own Bible unless I have to, but there’s no law against it.
(3) How Should I Study? – so you’ve got your Bible open and the text before you. What then? The time I have tonight is far too short to go through all the ins-and-outs of Bible study, but I would suggest you approach the text by asking it two questions. These two questions I’m getting from the Shorter Catechism Q. 3 ‘What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.’ That is to say, that in every text there is information about God and information about the way we should live our lives. So then analyse the text by asking these two questions:
a) What does this text tell me about God? – and again, since Jesus Himself said, ‘these are the Scriptures that testify about me’, do not limit your ‘God-analysis’ in such a way as to exclude Christ. Wherever you are in the Scriptures, Christ is in the text. So ask the question, ‘what does this text tell me about Christ?’
b) What does this text tell me about my duties to God? – if the Scriptures are to be our rule of faith and life; if they are the lamp to our feet and the light to our path, then they will instruct us. So look for the practical application of the text. I’m not saying here that it is during our study that we must apply the text to our own lives – that comes later (indeed it comes next week through our discussion of Meditation and Memorization) – all I’m saying is, look for the general principles highlighted by the text.
Let’s take an example: Psalm 43
(a) What does this text tell me about God?
He is the vindicator
He is the pleader (defender)
He is the rescuer
He is the stronghold
He is the source of light
He is the source of truth
He dwells on his holy mountain
He requires sacrifice (that is what an altar is for)
He is the Saviour
How does this translate into Christ?
In Christ, our enemies are defeated and we are saved.
(b) What does this text tell me to do?
To pray to God for vindication, defence and rescue
To lay out our feelings before God
To pray for God’s Kingdom to come
To rejoice in God
To delight in God
To praise God
To make God, ‘my God’
To evaluate ourselves and correct our down-cast-ness
To hope in God
To wait on God
(4) How Can I Study? – supposing you are struggling with the meaning of the text, there are lots of aids which can help you. But before I tell you what they are, don’t fall into the twin traps of reading the aids and not the Bible, or reading the aids more than you read the Bible. Read your chosen text once, twice, three times even and try to understand it without using the aids, and then go to them. So what are they?
- Bible Dictionary – this will tell you what a particular word means. A good Bible dictionary can be found at www.reference-guides.com/isbe/
- Concordance – this will help you find other places in the Bible where a particular word is used.
- Bible translations and Study Bible – its always good to have at least two Bibles, one which reads well (like the NIV) and one which is a more literal translation (like the ESV). By comparing both translations, you’ll get closer to what the text means. Also, if you have the money, invest in a study Bible.
- Commentaries – these will explain the meaning of the text. These commentaries work at different levels:
i. Devotional – these will apply the text to your every day situation – a good example of this is Warren Weirsbe’s ‘Be’ series.
ii. Study – these are slightly heavier and will delve into what the text means – good examples are the Bible Speaks Today Series and the Focus on the Bible Series.
iii. Exegetical – these are for serious students of the Word and go right in deep to the meaning of the text. Examples of this are the Mentor series, the Word series and the NICOT/NICNT series.
There are a thousand other things I could say about Bible study, and I’m no expert, but dig, dig, dig and I promise you that the Spirit will uncover, uncover, uncover. For just a bit of effort, you’ll find gold in the pages of your Bible, because you’ll find Christ. Do you want Christ? Then search for Him in the Scriptures. AMEN